I was actually thinking in homage of a classic Peanuts sketch from “Merry Christmas, Chariie Brown!” in which Lucy recites a whole series of Latinate medical terms for fears which might be causing Charlie Brown’s depression. He finally realizes he has Pantophobia… the fear of everything.

Doctors of that era seem to have been “splitters” with long unique terms for every little variation on phobias. The current trend seems simpler and more straightforwards, recognizing the common elements in phobic disorders… e.g the simple categories in the DSM section I mentioned below.

I do miss the beauty of some of the older terminology, though. “Phobiaphobiaphobia” for example… the unreasoning fear of being afraid of fear itself. Usually triggered by traumatic childhood exposure to the speeches of Winston Churchill 🙂

His phobia could also have been caused by some event that occurred when he was a teacher. The little ones can get quite creative in using harmless objects in horrifying ways.
(This should have the “Do not try this tag” attached)
I know a teacher when I was in high school that developed a fear of coffee after some little pain decided to try some eye drops in her coffee. If you Google the effects I just have to say its dangerous and embarrassing at the same time.

Ona a slightly serious note – after many many years, i finally realised that my SERIOUS needle phobia very likely traces back to an episode when my mother took me to the doctor for the final Salk booster…

I understand completely. I recently learned that there were situations in my childhood that I needed a shot or blood drawn, and my mother had to bodily hold me down while the doctor or nurse did their thing. It’s no wonder I don’t handle needles or blood work well.

Now if only I could figure out why hand wounds (or having needles put in my hands) bother me as much as they do…that kind of thing results in vomiting or hyperventilation…

Interesting! I actually turn that image on its head… when I donate blood I think of lending some of my life energy to the person who will receive the transfusion, to aid their healing. It’s an idea I lifted from and old story by Zenna Henderson… it makes the donation process seem less impersonal. Doubt that it actually changes anything but it feels good to do it anyway.

Those flippin’ things HURT – your arm would swell and hurt like the dickens.

But it wasn’t the pain that triggered the phobia – as such – it was when i said i didn’t want a shot and pulled away and they tried to give it to me anyway and i got loose and ducked under the examining table into the far corner and got hysterical as they tried to drag me out…

(I must have been about six or seven.)

Now, in Navy boot camp, i came very close to decking a corpsman in the injections line when i got faint from one injection and dropped out of line and sat down by the wall and pput my head down, like they told us to.

And i felt something tugging at my arm and i looked up and here was this jerk with the compressed-air injection gun that would split your skin if it (or your arm) moved during the injection. He was at the end of the air line, trying to lift my arm and drag me near enough to shoot me.

I popped up pretty fast and shoved him away (he nearly fell). He got mad and was going to swing at me when one of the doctors, who’d seen the whole thing stopped him and put a different corpsman on the gun.

I was later congratulated by several other boots, including a couple with ripped-up spots on their arms where this guy had messed up with them satanding right there…

His lackwit martial artist father, seeking to teach his son the secrets of the dreaded Monkey-Fu, covered Darren with bananas and threw him into a cage of chimps. For some reason, instead of becoming terrified of the monkeys, he focused on the bananas and now can’t be in the same room as one.

Naw, that’s ridiculous. Who could ever come up with a plot point like that? 🙂

then again could be from when monica was a regular. i suspect she got darren to get the comfy ones so she could do that without her knees ending up hurting.
(yes i am talking about experience from kneeling on a bar stool and they hurt after a time! even the cushioned ones!)

Wonder if we’re now going to find out about how Monica managed to leave a banana in her bathroom long enough for it to ferment, and not notice it on her sink.

Always struck me as having appeared there through one of the subtler rips in the fabric of reality. As opposed to the neutrino signatures of the plasma balls hanging in the background, still unnoticed by our heroes.

Seems easy enough. When she was working at that time she was horribly overworked and that week she started to eat a banana, went to the restroom and left it on the sink and forgot it. She spent the rest of the day coasting on fumes and didn’t notice the banana on the sink and went to bed. She could have had a week like this and didn’t notice it sitting there thee whole time and when she finally grabbed it it was rotten. A banana that has been peeled will rot at an accelerated rate in the right conditions. it could even ferment like that in the span of a day if the heat was up in the house.

Don’t worry, its probably stuck in her clevage.
I believe Monica’s clevage is like a Bag of Holding that contains its own Infinite Hammerspace to store various this. And, as you can see, sometimes things get lost in it!

The “Uh…um” could easily be attributed to being put on the spot. I do that a lot when I’m searching my files for a piece of “interesting” and previously unshared information. 🙂 Besides…he just looks uncomfortable to me.

Reminds me a bit of when Monica first tried to get to know Tina and she started spewing out a lot of stuff to avoid giving too much information (until Monica clarified that she just wanted a last name). Interesting that Monica has had this kind of moment with both her barista and her bartender. 🙂

I think that Daren is feeling guilty or embarrassed because he’s telling the truth and the truth is embarrassing for him. That’s different from Francisco’s example, where the guy was feeling guilty for lying or promising too much.

maybe not… the flavoring “stuff” comes in a bottle, right? so you MIGHT get it there… but then again if he won’t let the band Fermented Banana play because of the NAME… then you might be right after all, oh well, just a few drinks need bananas, so no real big loss i guess.

Monica best be VERY careful lest she also have a ‘Wardrobe Malfunction’ Like women have had of late (re: Dancing w/ the Stars) and one of the….”girls steps out for some air”.
Actually that top Monica is wearing does look ‘Bar Whenchy’ ( if there is such a word).

Paul… did you modify the html code for the drop-down menu bar at the top of the page recently? or is is something on my end? i can no longer see the drop downs, and the text equivalents are mostly hidden behind the comic strip image…

oh yeah, and everything is on the left hand side of the page, and no longer centered into columns anymore. the topwebcomic vote button and all the links to other comics are displaying below the last post in the comments section, and the text box i’m typing this into is no longer a fixed size, but mouse draggable now.